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All my Vegas peeps and friends who are looking to make a trip out to Vegas this summer I have your Saturday nights planned for you! Behind the scenes I’ve been working with my good buddy, Mike Henry of The Bunkhouse to put together a summer concert series lineup for the Foxtail Pool at SLS Las Vegas. We’re talking a fireworks worthy show with MSTRKRFT, reggae on a hot Vegas night with Matisyahu, an old school hip-hop show with Sir Mix A Lot, Naughty by Nature, Shock G, Young MC and Tha Alkaholiks, Hoobastank with POD and Alien Ant Farm, Matt & Kim back in Vegas for their first time since destroying their set at Life is Beautiful last fall, the Las Vegas debut for Mystikal with Fiend and KLC, Plain White T’s and more to be announced! All these shows (except for one) are on a Saturday night, booze will be flowing, the pool will be available for open swim and we’re going to have a fun time partying to the lineup below. That’s the key, FUN, and these shows are all about it! Tickets go on sale Thursday, hope you can make it! Also the most killer deal of all, you can get a “season pass” which will grant you entry to each show throughout the summer. We’re going to be adding more shows so this is a killer deal.

Took me a little bit to get around to writing up this bad boy but below is a little bit of my recount from Outside Lands. Believe it or not, this was my first time attending this festival and now I’m scratching my head wondering why I’ve never actually gone (to be fair to myself, the dates never really lined up for me until this year). My hope is that I don’t miss another Outside Lands. The city, the setting, the experience, the people all made for an amazing weekend.

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I decided to get things started a little bit early and book my trip to arrive Thursday night for two reasons, one I wanted to be there Friday morning (I’m not a fan of flying in the day the festival starts) and two, Zedd was playing at The Independent. Seeing him in a venue that only holds 500 people (and that’s one of my top 3 favorite venues, yes please!) just doesn’t happen so there was extra motivation to get to this show. Excited, set to leave Vegas and then it hit, the damn weather in SF delayed ALL flights. Quickly I started thinking I was going to miss the show as my plane was delayed first an hour, then three hours and finally four hours and we were told to deplane. Once off the plane I immediately checked the departure board and boom, flight to Oakland leaving in 9 minutes. Could it happen? Could I really make it? Guess luck was on my side because the gate agent held the door as she was processing my change and off to Oakland I went! Landed, hopped in a cab, $80 later dropped my stuff off, got in another cab and made it to Zedd right on time!

As for the real Outside Lands experience, two words, PAUL MCCARTNEY. This was hands down one of the top musical moments of my life. Watching from front of house and witnessing the 71 year old jam for three hours, no water breaks, silence a crowd at times and create the biggest sing-along in San Francisco, now that was cool. After six failed attempts for all sorts of reasons, I was finally destined to see Phoenix live! And man was it awesome. 35,000 strong at the Twin Peaks stage and everyone going crazy for Thomas Mars and the gang. I can still visualize them playing “Lasso,” it was that good. So many great memories from this trip, here are some of them.

My Moment of Joy: Paul McCartney. This was an absolutely unreal experience. Just look at THIS 39 song setlist

Best Lands End Stage Show: McCartney, hands down nothing could have been better BUT I will say Vampire Weekend crushed it and had a monster crowd

Best Twin Peaks Show(s): Phoenix and twenty one pilots but I’m biased since these were two must see sets. Now Rudimental, they stole the show and my Outside Lands experience (more on that below)

Best Panhandle Stage Show: Kopecky Family Band, had seen them a couple times prior but this performance was just solid

Best Sutro Stage Show: I only made it over there for The Easy Leaves and Kurt Vile (yeah, I missed out on some amazing performances including CHIC which received rave reviews)

Best Overall Show (not being Paul McCartney): Rudimental. Thanks to a friend from London I was told to check them out and boy was he right; I got to catch the beginning of their set and wow was it awesome! If you are not familiar with this troupe, I suggest you start listening to them

Biggest Surprise: See directly above

Best Legend Show: Can Jurassic 5 count for this one? So awesome to see the MCs back together again doing it big and with a massive crowd responding to every rhyme

Random Moment(s) Of Awesomeness: Paul McCartney asking for a moment to take in the scene, The Head and The Heart surprise show in the woods, and that bloody mary on Sunday at a location I won’t disclose was delightful.

Overall Stage With The Best Performances: Lands End had the big ones but I think the shows over at Twin Peaks were all ragers

Most Entertaining Show: twenty one pilots, you never know what’s coming next, those fellas have unlimited energy

Most Disappointing Moment: Missing a plethora of bands I wanted to see just based on schedule conflicts – Willie Nelson, Yeasayer, Rhye, King Tuff, DAWES, Fishbone, Dumpstaphunk

Next Big Thing: Wild Belle, it has got to happen for this brother-sister act, they keep getting better and better live

Perfect Moment: coming over the hill to catch Nine Inch Nails and them busting right into “Closer,” too perfect!

Giving it a shot: Young The Giant, I’ve seen these guys live 7 times, was a bit over them and then I accidentally caught their set and they reminded me why I became a fan in the first place

Top Party: A-Trak, dude just crushed the crowd in the middle of the day

Band I Was Sad To Miss: Yeasayer

Best Intro: Do my intros to friends going to see a band they never heard of count?

What Would Have Been Great: two of me to split myself and see every show

Top Moment: Taking in the surreal moment the first time the entire crowd went dead silent listening to Sir Paul

Best Festival Eats: The Whole Beast’s Lamb Paella

Best Beer Lands Beer: Magnolia Brewery Kolsch

Best Place To Cool Off: Wine Lands

Biggest Waste of Time: thinking taking anything but an Uber (at surge pricing) to get to/from the park was a good idea

Shocker Of The Festival: There was a whole lotta sun (until Sunday)

Worst Part: Scheduling conflicts

Clutch Move: bringing a backpack and having layers for when it got cold

Tip For Next Year: stay a day later and enjoy SF!

More Tips: drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen even if the sun isn’t shining, have comfortable shoes, VIP access is totally worth it, arrive early to take advantage of all the good eats, if you think you’re going to want a blanket or sweatshirt from OSL buy it on day one

If you read the blog last week you’ve already seen who’s playing at Lollapalooza this August but if not, below is the lineup poster. Should be another solid three days/nights in the Windy City and I have to say, nice to see The Dunwells on here again as their set was washed out in 2012.

Earlier today the Lollapalooza lineup was leaked and the Chicago Tribune put together another post following their item last week regarding the headliners. Once again, another stacked lineup for the Chicago based festival. Sure the big acts are powerful and pack a punch but it’s the up and comers which fans are going to be stoked about. Now the question is, do I make a return for a third straight year…..

That Festival in Delaware, yeah Firefly has done it again with another solid lineup. From top to bottom fans should be jacked up about this one. Lots and lots of great up and coming bands. This is the week after Bonnaroo (which drops its lineup today too) so expect to see many similar artists.

If you want to watch the video, check it out below but just a warning, it is looooong.

Labor Day has come and gone which means we can all start to get ready for Fall. Yes cooler temperatures, shorter days, hoodies and football are all coming back into season and musically it’s going to be an awesome one as there are dozens of anticipated new albums set to drop. Plus it means at DoYouHearTheMusic.com I can put together a first installment of Jump Into Fall playlists which I hope you really enjoy Vol.I. This one was a bunch of fun to put together and really does include a lot of good rock and roll (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The Dirty Guv’nahs, Heartless Bastards, Death On Two Wheels, The Sheepdogs) as well as an oldie but newbie for 99% of you from the Belgian, Selah Sue. Give a spin on Spotify and listen for yourself HERE.

Finally the Bonnaroo schedule has been released! Click HERE to take a look. As expected when the schedule came out, there are many many conflicts and overlaps with artists and set times. Of course for me there are the staple artists that are marked as must sees (Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident, Buffalo Springfield, Mumford & Sons, Gregg Allman, Robert Plant, G. Love, The Black Keys, Warren Haynes, etc.) and after that, time to figure out the rest. Who knows, my ideal schedule today may end up being completely different when I arrive. All I know is there is a ton of great music and I can’t wait to be surrounded by 90,000 of my new closest friends.

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